The evening following Jesus’ crucifixion must have been very difficult for his disciples. Everything seemed lost. Their Master’s promises of eternal life and the nearness of the kingdom of God, and the infinite possibilities they had glimpsed, now lay with Jesus’ inert body behind a huge, seemingly immovable stone. The night before, after they had all sworn not to leave him, they had all abandoned Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, as he faced the unimaginable. Peter denied any connection with Jesus—not just once, but three times—following Jesus’ arrest.
But maybe more than the burning wound of guilt, perhaps it was doubt they felt above all. Why, after having performed amazing works—healing the sick, raising the dead, and so many other wonders—had Jesus suffered such a painful death? If his coming had not been the fulfillment of prophecy, he would not have been able to teach them their true origin, the true origin of every person as created by God, and show them how to perform the same works that he had done. Yet all this was now in the past.
Mary Baker Eddy writes, “The truth had been lived among men; but until they saw that it enabled their Master to triumph over the grave, his own disciples could not admit such an event to be possible” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 24). Even after Jesus’ resurrection and appearance to his disciples on two occasions, at some point some of the disciples returned to their former occupation as fishermen. Not knowing what else to do, they went back out on the sea of Galilee. But even though they fished through the night, they didn’t get the satisfaction of a catch.
